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Moments of the Unknown - 172
Recorded: Sept. 26, 2025 Duration: 0:57:30Space Recording
Short Summary
Killer Acid discusses his recent partnership with the Grateful Dead, the launch of a new pixel art project, and his community-focused fundraising efforts, while setting ambitious goals for future artistic endeavors.
Full Transcription
Good morning!
Good morning!
How's everybody doing?
How is everybody doing?
We're waiting on Killer Acid.
I hope he remembers to join us.
Let's find out.
Awesome, dude.
I love this series.
Libra.
Ooh, 225. Libra Oh, 2025 2025
I think we
I hope he remembers
Alright, let me send him the invite
Oh, he's here
What's up?
What's up, Killer Acid?
I sent you a speaker invite.
How's it going, man?
Hey, good morning.
How's it going with you?
Good morning, man.
It's such an honor to have you here.
I've been a big fan of yours for many, many years.
I've collected most of your pins and some of your prints.
So I'm a big fan here of you.
Thank you. Likewise. I'm a big fan of your work as well, man.
And I appreciate you having me on.
My pleasure. I can't wait to jump into your work, your style, what you've been doing in the space.
It's been a pleasure to see you here, you know, coming from collecting your prints.
Like that print of Death playing video games was very dear to me and was in my video game room.
very dear to me and was in my video game uh room so you know seeing your work here as nfts really
makes sense but also it's like really exciting to collect that stuff too
i'm not sure if you can hear me
can you guys hear me. Can you guys hear me?
Oh, we lost him.
We lost him.
We're going to get him back.
Might have to leave and come back.
I can't hear you if you're talking.
Gotta love Twitter spaces.
Anyway.
Sitting outside on the on the fire escape.
Have a new studio
here in New York City.
Getting the electric put in.
Getting a table made.
Doing our Twitter spaces between all that stuff.
Hopefully he comes back.
Maybe I scared him off.
Hey.
Hey.
Okay.
We're back. Good thing they got dialed in. Hey. Okay. All right. We're back.
Good thing they got dialed in.
Yeah.
I go through this every so often.
Yeah.
I'm going to move inside my main house here and get out of the workshop
because sometimes the Wi-Fi out there isn't as strong,
so that will probably help.
Awesome, dude.
Yeah, I mean, I normally start this thing off by having you introduce yourself and talk about how you got started as an artist
how you came to find your amazing psychedelic style and subject matter and how you found the
nfc space so we'd love to hear your story and sorry if it's a bit loud i'm on the fire escape uh they're
doing some work inside it's always something in new york right um yeah i don't know i started my
i started i mean i was always an artist when i was a little kid i always wanted to be an artist
that my my uncle was a prolific glass blower. I always go to his studio and just be amazed by what was going on
there. I just never really wanted to join the working society. I kind of always rejected it.
I had a lot of jobs in New York. I just always was freelance. I hated the idea of a full-time job,
so I was always trying to hustle and do whatever
I could to not be someone else's pawn to make money for them. You know what I mean? I just kind
of always rejected that idea. I saw it as a hindrance to my destiny in life, which as a
young person, you're at odds with because you have to make money and work, you know.
Anyway, yeah, so I don't know.
I just moved to New York when I was 19 years old. I was in bands and I did any kind of zines I could.
I just was always hustling to try and get my work out there.
It took me about 10 years, I think, to really kind of break through
and become somewhat successful enough to live off my art.
So, you know, it was always like kind of a grind.
You know, nothing was easy for me particularly.
So fortunately, I got some good help along the way. I fell in with Desert Island Comics,
and I kind of got involved with Printed Matter in New York
and did all their book fairs.
All that stuff really helped me find my voice
and find my way in New York as an artist,
just finding a community of people in the city,
and that's kind of what happened. I would started doing i would do wheat paste i would do art shows i would do
like print prints anything anyone asked me to do i would pretty much do it you know do zines i would
just be in i would just get involved with pretty much anything you know so that's kind of i guess
how i kind of came up.
Awesome.
Well, you know, before we go deeper, you know, New York is a funny place when you're trying to find your footing.
You know, I was born here.
I'm not sure where you're from.
Yeah.
I would guess California, if I had to guess.
No, I'm from Delaware, actually.
I grew up in Philly, moved to Delaware.
Oh, really?
Then I moved to New York.
Yeah, so I just was in that 200-mile radius pretty much my whole life until i moved out west oh i see yeah man you know i share that same
mentality with you about uh you know being your own boss uh being an artist not not joining the
consensus of society kind of like you you kind of don't serve the purpose in life if you're
society kind of like you you kind of don't serve the purpose in life if you're someone like us who
who needs that creativity and you know we're not contributing as much to the world if if we're not
in that in that place to create i think you know as much as like well we're not lazy we're not
trying to not have a job it's like this is our job right this is our purpose on earth
so i totally understand where you're coming from when you say
that um but but the but the ironic thing about that is we don't want that nine to five but we
have a 24 7 i know that is the that is eventually the scales tip and you're like oh shit i'm working
for my own corporation instead of someone else's but at least you're working for yourself but it is funny
because there's no guard there's no guardrails you know you have to create your own um
personal space and your own boundaries within that i think so you know my own i'm like two people you
know it's a never-ending job when you become an artist, you're expected to work
like 24-7, 365, no breaks.
But that's the joy
and that's the fun.
That's the excitement.
It's like everything's a job,
whether it's doing your own admin
or making your posters, right?
Like there's joy in all of it
because you are your own boss.
Yeah, that's true.
I have a guy that helps me
with the business um like the
operations of everything and he's always like well why are you doing that why are you working on that
those poster separations or why are you doing that why are you helping on that ad because i'll have
other people in the studio that that could do it but i'm like well i like i just i like it i just
like putting my hands on everything if I can.
I like touching the advertising aspect of our business.
I like doing the nitty-gritty and the photography
and whatever it takes.
Just to set the tone for everyone else who works with us.
Just trying to get involved with every piece of it
and then kind of train people and let them do it.
You know what I mean?
That's kind of always been my mindset in our studio.
Well, I was going to ask you,
when you do get successful enough to have a studio
and have employees and you can't handle everything,
but it's hard to let go of that control
and to trust someone to convey your vision
the way you do it, the way you know how to do it,
that's where I kind of struggle.
It's like I want to do everything, but I can't do everything.
But we need help also.
So how do you personally balance that out?
I think it's become a matter of teaching
and sort of just letting people make mistakes
and then being like, well, let's do it like this
and showing them how I would have preferred to do it.
And I try to be really gentle because people are very, you know, everyone is very like, you got to tell people the right way.
So I've learned how to like manage, I think, personalities, which is something I never really expected I have to do.
to do but it's I think part of that being a father has helped me you know kind of like dealing with
dealing with people's frustrations and they're and you know trying to make them feel like
good about working for me but also you know hey look maybe next time we can do it a little bit
differently you know so I'm just trying to like be very gentle with everybody so that's kind of
how I've I've learned by experience
and you got to really like sort of lead firmly but be like okay like you could do this better but
you know you're doing great you know what i mean yeah so i i i understand how many how many people
do you you know have in the kitchen with you at any given time? Usually eight people right now.
We have two full-time people and about five part-time employees
that work three days a week,
and then I work with them Monday through Wednesday in the studio.
And then Thursday and Friday, I have my art days
where I just draw and get to like zone out and stuff.
And sometimes that bleeds into Saturday. It depends what my family's up to. And if they,
if I'm needed, you know, in terms of child, child care and whatnot, but yeah, it's, it's,
it's like pretty cool. I have, I really liked the team we have assembled and I'm just trying to like
build it slowly, you know? And how do you find yourself finding the right people for
your team is it like some spiritual connection is it is it are you higher on craigslist do you find
them like as you walk your path you know because it and i'm asking these questions because i'm
i'm thinking about these things for myself in my new studio here that i'm literally getting built
out but i'm
just curious to hear from you you know you have eight people on your team and you know you're busy
making art but you need people to ship things out like how do you or or i don't know if some people
make your art too i know some artists have other people make their art which i don't know if i
agree with that but i'm curious, how do you find your people?
I've just kind of found them by walking the path, I guess,
just seeing who I'm attracted to or who seems to be wanting to enter the orbit
and what they have to offer,
and it's kind of like a conversation happens.
So it hasn't been like we haven't hired anybody from an ad,
you know what I mean?
It's kind of been like word of mouth or just like, you know,
are you available?
Are you local?
How far do you live?
Are you willing to fly to visit sometimes to work?
So that's just kind of been like that.
Mostly, you know, sometimes my wife is like,
maybe you should stop hiring your friends.
And I'm like, well, I don't know.
I tend to be friends with everyone who kind of joins anyway.
So, yeah, it's been really cool to see that.
The first person that was really helping me was another artist named Matt Crabe.
And he actually moved.
Right at the beginning of the pandemic, he moved out from...
He was in New Jersey, then he was in rural Texas.
Then he just moved out to work with me.
I texted him and was like, I could use some help. I'm Texas, and he just moved out to work with me. I texted him.
I was like, could you use some help?
I'm opening, I guess got a new space.
I need help.
And he just came out.
And it was kind of like the first time I've ever experienced that where someone's like, yeah, I'm going to come help you.
And then he literally was there like a week later.
You know what I mean?
Usually people are like, yeah, yeah, that sounds great.
I'd love to do it down the road.
But he just was out there, and I was like, okay, cool.
Like, this is how it's going to go.
Like, just so I'm trying to find people who have that motivation,
you know, who just want to help.
They show up when, and they're, and they're reliable and it's hard to find
that, but when they come, they're, they're the gems.
Yeah, man.
That's the, that's the, that's the ticket.
People who are reliable.
So, you know, and. And we probably pay way better
than most other jobs out here.
You know what I mean?
So it's like I'm paying a fair wage
and feel good about the back end
we've built in the business
with the benefits and stuff.
It's all stuff you have to learn.
I didn't expect this conversation
to go this way,
but it is kind of the most interesting thing about art
is how do you build it?
How do you grow it?
How do you grow your studio?
Well, you know what?
This conversation, I'll go anywhere.
We're going to start talking about your art.
But I am like, one final thought
just for this side of the conversation.
You know, how do you feel about people believing in your vision
where you're able to have this team and, like,
you're someone that people know and love
and you've created a unique character or style
and a lot of psychedelic energy.
I'm curious, are you always on psychedelics when you're making this art or is that just your motif how does that you know how does it feel to
be an artist that people want to work with or people want to collect because you know I think
what you've created is iconic and you know if we were in the 70s, you know, you'd be making all those posters. I'm sure you've made amazing musicians' posters now.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, I've been doing posters with, I'm working on a Grateful Dead project right now.
I'm working with some other artists that I, you know, some other sort of legacy acts.
I feel like those are really fun to do because you get to delve into the whole world of what's already been made.
Yeah, I don't know.
It feels good to me.
It feels great.
At some point, I was sort of like feeling like I was getting trapped by this fear,
this fear of, you know, success or something.
And I just like kind of like managed to shut all that off and just be like,
look, you only got one shot to do this.
Like you got to turn off that fear.
You got to like stop worrying about negativity
or people that are like, don't get it.
So at some point, I just turned that off to most degree.
Like 99%, I'm just fearless,
which is kind of part of the way to be.
I mean, I'd say that for anybody.
It was not easy to get over that.
I'm just not interested in having a back and forth with people who want to argue
or want to be mean or negative.
And I think just blocking that shit out, it was really helpful to me.
It's like the self-doubt creeps in.
Or like, am I doing the right thing?
Is this the right thing?
And then you take a wide-angle view of it.
I mean, this is kind of where psychedelics come in to me to some degree
is seeing the big picture and seeing something beyond the me or the now
and what is beyond all of this.
of this and that's kind of what gets me into the into the zone you know it's like i'm just i'm just
And that's kind of what gets me into the zone.
creating in this like beautiful void almost and i'm not really concerned like okay what is this
gonna be what does it mean who's gonna care about it like at some point i just kind of was like let
me sit in my little zone and not worry about that shit you know what i mean which is hard to do it's
hard it's hard to get there but it's kind of like where I where I like to be you know can we dig a little deeper in the fear because I feel
like there's so much lessons to be learned there and how you overcome that or how that even you
know because when I look at you I'm like man this guy has his shit together he knows exactly what
he's creating he's got a great audience so it's interesting to hear that there's that fear of
success and I want to I think we I would love to hear a little bit more about that
and what that means to you and how that guided you to let it go.
You know, I think the most poignant psychedelic trip I've had
in the past couple of years was I was laying on my bed and just on LSD and I'm thinking about and I'm
sort of like scrolling through like all the people I knew like everybody I know
I saw a vision of like all of them kind of like surrounding me and and as I was
walking the circle and looking at all of them, I was seeing their inner child,
or I was seeing them as a little kid or something,
like just free.
It was really weird.
It was like I could see them as their root essence or something,
and I was viewing them with no...
I wasn't viewing them as friends or employees.
I was just viewing them as spirits or as beings
and this beautiful energy,
just completely pure energy, not tainted by the world
or work we were doing or anything.
I just kind of saw everybody for what they were.
And then at the end of the trip, I came out of it,
a couple days later, I'm thinking,
well, that's the same way you see yourself.
Like, see yourself as that beautiful, pure essence.
See yourself as that inner child.
See yourself as that person who hasn't gone through any of these life experiences,
hasn't been hurt by people or hurt by, you know, 9-11 or whatever the fuck it was,
you know, like hurt by things, you know, so I kind of started giving myself that,
I don't know, the same deference or that same gaze where I'm like, this is a beautiful person.
They didn't do anything wrong. You're good, you know know so I'm seeing myself as a good spirit
or essence and that's kind of what I took from it
I don't know that's kind of where I got to that fear
that fear
out of that fear zone you know what I'm saying
that's beautiful man
you know it might take
experiences like that to get to there
but my question
for you is how do we continue
tapping into that
source without any psychedelic
or to translate that
to other people?
And I'm surrounded by all these
noises and bangs. I'm sorry.
I can't hear any of them.
Okay, cool, cool. That's good because
I can't hear myself talking.
Their filters, their noise filter is
perfect so but um so back to the question like yeah how do you how can one practice to see
themselves as that pure light to believe in themselves to let go of all of the trauma that's
you know that we've created or that's been put onto us by society to be free. Yeah. I mean, how do you do it? I guess maintenance, therapy.
I talked to a therapist, very helpful, venting frustrations,
venting bullshit. You know what I mean?
Just like this, like I had this experience once where I had a really deep
depression and I felt like I had this, like,
I was walking around with this like venom suit on like venom from Spider-Man. Like I felt like I had this like I was walking around with this like venom suit on like venom from spider-man like I felt like I had this black suit around me like I
couldn't get out of this like muck you know what I mean so I'm always just kind of like wary of that
it's like I start feeling these like negative things attach themselves to me and I'm like how
do I get rid of this so I I think therapy is good. I think,
I mean, I do long bike rides. That's good. You know, I do meditation that helps. So I think just doing daily maintenance and daily and weekly something, I do one thing a week for myself.
I just schedule on Thursdays, one thing for me, whether it's, I go to a, you know, I go for a long
ride on my bike or I go to like, go go to the hot tub meditation spa place that I like.
Just one day a week, I do that for two or three hours,
and I really feel like that time helps me have that, just giving myself that personal care,
which I mean, it's kind of like, honestly, I feel like it's kind of like,
before I did it, I thought it was kind of cor honestly i feel like it's kind of like before i did it i
thought it was like kind of corny but i now i give myself that time and it really helps me
like do a little bit of a reset you know totally get it i love i love hitting the song i was in
this week it brings you back to that self-care and i think at the end of the day if you're not
taking care of yourself if you're not maintaining your system your mind your body yeah how can you give anything to anyone if your cup is not full of energy
you know you're just you're just you know like drained and you know we have to give that love
to ourself and i think that's kind of what your message is it's like give love to yourself so
you're able to share that. Yeah.
I want to talk a little bit about some of your projects.
I really would love to learn more.
We kind of skipped over this at the beginning with all the business talks, but I'm curious, like,
when did you start finding your voice and style of like this psychedelic
characters that you've created and this,
this mix between like
cartoon and graphic like how when did you find your voice or was there did it take time or was
there a moment like like that moment of clarity you had on acid you know and and and the second
part of that is do you channel all of that energy you were sharing earlier to heal?
Or is this more about, you know, a different type of vision than needing art to do that?
I mean, I use the art, I use the drawing as a meditative process where I zone out.
If I can just put my phone down for four or five hours and just sit there and work and draw,
like, it just, it really work and draw like I just it
really just makes me like like relax it relaxes my body to sit there and work
even if I'm just like doodling or whatever you know so that I have certain
techniques to get into the zone like call it I call it's called the zone like
I'm trying to go into the zone every week and stay in that zone you know so
yeah I don't know I think it for me it started when I was um mostly when I was in high
school I was drawing I was always drawing these kind of like psychedelic vision type things I think
I think it's kind of started for me seeing surrealist art when I was a kid and seeing like
Picasso Guernica I went on a trip I was like chaperone, even though I was a high school student.
I went with my father, who was a Spanish teacher,
and I saw a lot of, you know, the master works.
Picasso, you know, I just was a huge fan of Rene Magritte.
So I was always just kind of drawing these more psychedelic things,
even before I did any drugs or whatever.
That was what I was interested in as a student.
And I think when I started delving into psychedelics, it kind of clicked.
I was like, okay, there is a certain spiritual aspect to this.
Because that is kind of like the crux of psychedelia is like the spirit made manifest.
It's like you're channeling some kind of psychic energy or collective cosmic vision or whatever.
So for me, it's always part of that.
And then there's always part of this other thing that's sort of like the Gary Panter slash P-wee's Playhouse slash fun, pop, whatever,
Raw Magazine. These are my influences, and they all kind of smash together, and I just,
I love all that stuff, and that's just kind of what I ended up making. You know, it's like weird
because it's not purely just like, a lot of it is just zone out draw and psychedelia but some of it is like more pointed
like social commentary or you know uh satire making fun of people making fun of like tropes
or memes or whatever like i like bringing all that stuff in and and to some people it might be a lot
of different things but to me it all kind of makes sense because it's like if i'm thinking about it
i'm journaling about it,
then like you might hear about it,
you know,
or you,
I don't know.
This is kind of like how it goes.
You know,
you said something very interesting.
And when I look at your work,
I feel that collective consciousness,
I feel those things that you're expressing.
I felt during a trip and it's just so relatable.
I think the success, the success in what you're expressing i felt during a trip and it's just so relatable i think the
success the success in what you're communicating so relatable so human and you know if you're in
taking psychedelics you've you've had those experiences um you know i'm actually curious
i don't know if you've gotten this question before but is do you make other type of art outside of
your main characters and style like
for example uh my friend frank ape who was on here the other day i'm not sure if you know him
yeah i do you know he has his ape his character his guy but then if you look at his real paintings
like his oil paintings it's like such a different artist like super dark super beautiful very like somewhere between uh francis bacon and like um
who's that who's that other guy who does the portraits of people like sitting down naked
uh lucian freud so somewhere in between that beauty i was wondering like do you work do you
only do this stuff or is there another side of you that you really haven't shown anyone through your art?
Yeah, I mean, I think, I mean, Killer Acid is like a filter.
Killer Acid became like a set of rules through which I could then apply my ideas, right?
It's like the style is fundamentally like what I was doing.
It was just like kind of like took it and channeled.
It's like I'm like a robot.
It's like, is this killer acid?
Yes, then proceed.
You know what I mean?
It's like, no, then just draw it and leave it over in this pile.
So yeah, I do have probably 70% or 80% of my work is just drawings
that I just kind of make, and then they end up just being my own personal work.
I kind of share them loosely sometimes on my own personal Instagram,
but I don't usually share them.
Sometimes they end up getting absorbed
into Killer Acid, like a zine or something.
They'll kind of like more stuff that's more abstract
or just like less focused on a specific idea.
Like some of Killer Acid's best,
some of our best-selling stuff is actually that work.
It's more psychedelia for the sake of psychedelia,
and it has no message.
It has no words.
So I'm encouraged to continue drawing stuff like that
that is less memetic,
that's more random psychedelia.
I think there's a place for that in, you know,
in killer acid land too.
So yeah, I think we were asking,
do I make completely different work
that looks completely different?
I mean, not really.
Collaborating with Vodnik on that,
on our pixel collection was really cool for me
because that was like my work but
completely like through a different filter you know so doing that project was really cool
let's talk about that project because it was your most recent thing i think everyone in this
twitter space can you tell us how that came about and what what you know what inspired you to do
that and make your characters is like it like a PFP art series?
Tell us all about that one.
Yeah, I mean, I have a couple.
Speaking of work that's never been seen,
I've done a couple other PFP projects
that just never really fully realized, never finished.
Maybe I'll go back to them someday and finish them.
I don't know.
I got kind of burnt out by the idea of a single character drawn 10,000 times or generated 10,000 times.
So I was chatting with Vodnik on a Discord.
We were talking on Dickbutt's server somewhere about pixel art.
And he started just doing pixel versions of some of my characters.
I'm like, these look sick. So we decided to make a bunch of different characters
into little pixel characters.
I don't know.
It was very fun for me to have a hands-off sort of...
I'm just kind of like art directing and offering advice
and sort of like guiding him along.
And it wasn't really...
I didn't really have to get in there and touch the art
or like draw anything.
I kind of was like guiding him. I thought that was a really like have to get in there and touch the art or like draw anything. I kind of was like
guiding him. I thought that was a really cool process to collaborate on something.
Yeah, I don't know. And I think it was
pretty well received. I mean, it's hard to sort of
maintain the day-to-day on that,
the fickle nature of
project collections. You know, it's like we're trying to
I'm trying to make more work that goes with that work
without being too
obvious about it like without being like
this is coming next you know it's kind of like
well I'm working on it like so
it's been kind of an interesting project
honestly to see
the reaction to it and to see
the people's favorite characters
and what resonates most.
So it's been pretty cool.
I mean,
I have a couple of questions.
You know,
I think it was a massive success.
You know,
it did very well.
It's cool that you work with transient labs,
best team ever.
Yeah.
I'm just curious,
like how is,
how is,
do you think this is a little bit different than some of your past works,
like the meme cards or your one-on-ones or additions you have,
just as your signature, poster style, art, and all that good stuff?
How has this changed the game for you, or maybe your thoughts on how people are responding to you?
When going into PFP's kind of you know there's so much more expectation
how how do you deal with that what are your thoughts about all that is it just art do you
plan on doing more things you know because you know we with when p when you get into pfp's like
oh when airdrop when this and that so how have you been you know thinking about all this as it comes? Yeah, I mean, I have a plan for it.
It is an art project.
There was no roadmap.
It's never been promised.
But there is a plan for it.
And even today, I'm finishing up artwork.
I'm finishing up a new artwork with Transient Labs today.
That's like the next edition release.
So it's become a vehicle for
collecting work um if you're a holder of the project and i don't know if people
fully realize the value of that or if maybe it's more of a long-term perspective um but that's
kind of my goal is to create work surrounding this collection and have this collection be a vehicle for collecting other work
you know so it's kind of like it's to me it's been a fun it's kind of an experiment like i'm like what
like our first edition was a community made meme around a character from the collection you know
and i was like responding to that i made them i made the edition based on the what i saw happening so i'm kind of responding to what i'm seeing and if
there's excitement you know it's like okay let's try to like let's do this let's do that and i've
been building other things around it too like we just finished our discord we're going to start
inviting people gen you know we've only invited the collectors of this project so far,
but the idea is to start inviting all of our general audience
and inviting all of our other collectors and our T-shirt enthusiasts,
trying to get everybody on this Discord.
So for me, that's been an interesting project,
and it's taken a couple people to build it.
So I'm sort of just doing all these things behind the scenes,
and whether that makes a splash or not or or whether that, you know, causes excitement,
I can't really control.
But I am continuing every day.
I'm working on this a little bit.
You know what I mean?
So it's been kind of an interesting...
I will say, we're big fans.
We love it.
We love the PFPs.
We love the art you make.
You know, you got our full
support. I'm excited to see what you do or don't
do. It doesn't matter. It's like we're happy
to just be able to participate and collect
it. Like, this is dope. It's your
universe and you're allowing it to be
characters of the
universe. I think that's really fucking
cool.
I want to take a step back
and go back to how you found NF found nfts and how this became a
part of your repertoire and release style because you know going back five six years ago i was
collecting pins off your website i wear that polaroid you know t-shirt you made many many
years ago still wear that love that one so it's like going from all these amazing
prints posters pins every all the merch all the good stuff to nfts like how did that click for you
and you know become part of your artistic you know legacy i mean i really i i kind of heard about
nfts for the first time through john from super rare i met him at a bar
in brooklyn in uh 2018 i think and he took some of my work and took it to east denver
and he was using it as like a like a on their test net to like airdrop to people you know he was supposed to take like 50 animations and and
and give them away basically but something happened with the test net and it didn't work
so he ended up minting only a couple but that became our super rare first couple super rare
tokens and later he gave me the um the wallet so then it became my wallet so that's kind of how that all started hold on a second wait when when did that happen uh i think 2018 or 2019 yeah holy shit where is
that on at that's on that's on our super rare the first couple of pieces the first couple releases
are on there from there they were the first few super rare like test mints you know on the old contract i guess yeah i mean i don't know if that's important
or not but it's kind of interesting story but i just met him like through a friend of a friend and
really hit it off and i was like this this seems like a really interesting thing these guys are
doing um they're adding value they're adding a collector market for purely digital artwork. And the stakes were relatively low.
The first couple pieces I sold on there were for probably a couple hundred bucks.
And it was like, this is actually really amazing.
I can sell.
I make paintings.
I make drawings.
But not in the same level that I make digital work.
you know, that I make digital work.
I've always been sort of a digital artist ever since I was a kid,
I've always been sort of a digital artist ever since I was a kid.
you know, working on my Windows computer or whatever with the paint app,
you know, so I've always kind of been a digital artist.
And I'm like, this is a really great way to get my work out there
in a different way, you know?
So I just kind of had some good luck with it.
You know, that's the one thing I realized that you're really amazing at
is how versatile you are with all these different mediums different ways of distribution delivery
and i respect that hustle so much and i feel like you're you're really good at it i've learned a lot
just by buying and watching so so it makes sense like to move in the direction. I've seen your paintings at Super Chief.
I'm aware of a lot of awesome of the works you've made.
I think it was also at that gallery in LA.
What's that?
Illustrator gallery in LA.
Think Collective or something?
Yeah.
Think Art?
I'm not sure.
Anyway.
Sorry.
Anyway, so how are you thinking about integrating all of this? Yeah, I think art. I'm not sure. Anyway. Sorry.
Anyway, so how are you thinking about integrating all of this moving forward?
And what other technology or different mediums are you starting to play with or think about?
Like, have you done sculpture?
Are you thinking about making these characters like life size or toys or anything in that way um yeah i am we're actually working
on a sculpture project for 2026 like a room installation sculpture project it's it's like
not really announced yet but i am working on that and it i think you know doing a project with this
like the trippers has led me into this other project because it's like, okay, I can make art that I don't have to physically do 100% of the project.
So if I'm going to do fiberglass or 3D sculpture construction, I have to work with a fabricator.
I have to work with a fabricator.
I have to work with someone and create 3D models
and create a shared vision of what that will look like
and then create a bunch of pieces that go in this environment.
So this is kind of looping back to what I was saying about fear.
To me, I'm talking to these people and they're throwing all these ideas at me
and my body's like, what the hell? I can't do this.
But I'm thinking, you can do it. You can do this. You just have to work with people. You have to talk to the right
people. You have to meet the right people to talk to. You have to be introduced.
And that will be part of the process. So sometimes I'm like, you know, getting away from like what I
can do by myself in my room with my drawing versus what I can do with people who are experts in other fields or
other mediums you know I'm saying so I kind of think that is really the big picture of art is
like how how can you collaborate how can you draw more people into your circle how can you create
bigger things and that gets me out of that that gets me out of that sort of like bedroom aesthetic,
like that sort of like cartoonist drawing in the hunched over at the desk vibe.
You know what I mean?
Gets me into this bigger world.
So that's kind of what I'm aiming for.
And it's interesting that these projects come along
when that necessity is there to grow or to expand.
Do you know what I mean?
It's like a challenging of yourself to either be afraid to not do it
because you don't think you can or try and at least fail
and expand your vision and expand your ways of how the work can be seen.
I think the best artists can work in any medium,
can channel all these things, try and fail.
I've made some sculptures.
They fucking fail.
But hey, if you don't try, you don't know.
And the one last question I really wanted to talk to you about
is when you start drawing or you start on this path
and you kind of hinted towards it a little bit,
do these inspire the next idea?
Like, do you discover ideas along the way of making this final piece that you're working on?
Like, for example, the Grateful Dead poster.
And I want to also spend some time there.
You know, how does these new projects inform new projects?
Like you said, the PFP series you did recently, Trippers, brought you this new opportunity.
And like, how do you see all these unfolding, these doors opening? series you did recently, Trippers, brought you this new opportunity.
And how do you see all these unfolding, these doors opening?
When you work on one thing, 10 other things open up.
And I want to hear a little bit about what your thoughts are there.
Yeah, I mean, I think that's definitely part of it.
I honestly, I used to kind of dread illustration work and dread working with art directors.
I don't know.
Part of the thing is some of those projects,
if you do that,
it's led me into other places I didn't think I could go. So interfacing with someone else's mind
and not being afraid of them changing the idea
or guiding you in a certain direction
actually has taken that's kind of taken me into different places that I didn't think I could go
um you know and also working with like being open to like working with magazines or
I don't know something about this is like I changed my mind from being like this is less than this is impure from my personal
views or my personal ideas because sometimes these ideas are actually better someone else's
idea could lead my work into a place I don't I didn't really think it could go or and that will
might give me more ideas for the next thing so honestly like sometimes it feels good to be malleable and to be like a useful tool, you know, using myself as like, okay, let somebody else guide my hand on this one.
See where it goes.
It might take me to a place I didn't think I could go.
Like honestly, yesterday I drew a t-shirt from my daughter's preschool.
And it was like, I don't know, somehow I just sat down
and was like, I'm going to draw them a T-shirt
because they need money and I'm going to help them fundraise
and I'm going to make them a T-shirt.
And it's something I never in a million years thought I would do
was to make a T-shirt for a school.
Because it's like, okay, well, how do I make Killer Acid
not Killer Acid, make it just fun and friendly
and for the community?
So I think I found a way to steer it into that zone, you know.
Well, also, you're going to have your future fans when those preschoolers grow up, too.
Yeah, we'll see.
I don't know.
I'm seeing the school struggling to make money.
They're having fundraisers where the restaurant gives them 20%.
I'm like, dude, let's just make some merch that people want
and raise a couple thousand bucks that way.
No big deal.
So anyway, I'm more nervous about showing them this work
than I am showing it to art directors
or somebody with real status.
I'm worried they're going to reject it and be like,
what the hell is this?
Why does this sun have three eyes on it?
Why is there a boat
with eyes?
Anyway.
Well, maybe because it means
more because you're trying to help them
sustain themselves. It's not a
big brand that has millions.
It's like someone who
actually needs help and you're trying to help them yeah i think so anyway and you know what's
interesting you know what's interesting and you kind of said it earlier too about like when we're
when you were scrolling through the feed and you saw the light beings and the souls of the innocence
yeah and you know sometimes when. Sometimes when you take acid,
you believe that other people are you
in a different form or parallel universe.
I want to connect that idea to
when you work and collaborate with other people
or people who try to guide your hand, as you said,
how do you trust and know who to work with and who not
to if we are all one
and if we're tripping on acid right now
we're all one, we're all the same
we're the same person, the same electron
just experiencing God through consciousness
through different bodies
how do you trust?
Again, coming back full circle
to the beginning of this conversation
when working with brands or schools or others
or other artists like we're all one
how do you flow in the direction of where the art
needs to be? Yeah you know I think I use an old
kind of hippie mind trick or Jedi mind trick or whatever
not even a mind trick but just I think I always just have a phone conversation
with the person for like half an hour,
and then it kind of gives me a good sense of whether it's a, you know,
it gives me a sense of if I'm going to enjoy working with that person or not.
Because if I have a conversation and they're stressing me out,
then I'm like, eh, I'm typically going to
just let that go or not go towards that stressful feeling. But if I have a phone call with them and
it goes really well and we're just shooting the shit like we are right now, then I'm like, yeah,
this sounds... I could work with this person. So I really do feel like that connection is important.
And sometimes just working over email, I find to be a struggle. I really just
like to have a face-to-face with the person and kind of jive with them and see where I can,
you know, find a common place. Because I feel like that could be said for the
bigger loneliness epidemic is like everyone's just sort of talking to each other and not like
talking to each other. They're talking at each other and being like, you do this, you do that.
I'm like, well, let me talk to you and see what you think and see what you really want to do.
Because then that helps them see me too as who I am.
And they see my, I'm a kind of like a funny,
I got funny circuitous thoughts.
You know, like let's jam on this idea
and see what we can get out of it
instead of just being like, you know, your idea.
Okay, that's the best one. That's all we thought of is one idea. Like, let's just jam on it and see
if we can add something to it. Like, that's kind of how I feel about employees too. It's like,
I show people, I show them work. I network it. I workshop it. I'm like, what do you think this,
do you like this? And then I get their feedback. And I think it's kind of cool to get that
sort of like the key to creation is to kind of like let all things just be sort of, you know, equal in that moment.
And let the idea stand and see what can be bettered by communication.
Yeah.
Totally agree with that.
In-person energy is real
And it's you know that's how you can read
The situation and it's hard to do it through email
Especially if they're using chat GPT
It's not even their words
I don't even know if they're reading what I wrote
But they chat GPT
You know
You said something
Really interesting
And I want to like touch on that a tiny bit more um and it's about
it's about saying no it's about saying no to a project it's like it's not it's about not forcing
something it's like if you come up with an idea you can't come up with an idea and you and you
don't want to force it and maybe and taking accountability let's talk about accountability
and say you know this isn't working like yeah have you found yourself in that position of like you know what i wanted it to work
it's not working and yeah you know what the the right answer is just no and like and not having
to please or not having to force and how much of that you know you know it's hard when you're
creative because you want to make things work but there's times where you got to take a step back and say, this doesn't.
What are your thoughts on that?
I mean, that's definitely happened before where it's just gotten, the project had way
too big of a scope, not enough budget or just some, it was like something I don't enjoy
drawing.
Like I said, like I got offered to do like Slash's album cover from Guns N' Roses. You know I'm like a
huge I'm a huge Guns N' Roses fan from being a kid when that came out.
Appetite for Destruction and whatnot and I'm like you know talking to Slash's
manager and he's like we want you to create a painting that looks like this
painting and I'm like well I don't that's not what something I do sorry and
then I suggested a few other friends and you know I saw what they came up with
and I think my idea was better ultimately I presented them an
alternative idea you know this has happened with them this has happened
with me with Black Sabbath like I tried to work with Black Sabbath last year and
didn't happen it's just because like it because, like, the connection isn't there.
The desire to work together isn't there.
You know?
Sometimes that's the disconnect with the manager
or the record label,
and you have to just kind of, like, let it go.
You know, I'd love to work for Black Sabbath.
You know what I'm saying?
You got the Grateful Dead, bro.
That's true.
You got the Grateful Dead that's true you got the
grateful dead i mean i got a tattoo of the grateful dead and honestly that's it is aligned
with the style and the vibe yeah that's true john john mayer's dope can you can we end the call with
you talking a little bit about how that came to be and what that means to you and honestly when i
saw that i was like fuck that is so dope that you you did that
because that makes the most sense yeah yeah i mean i don't know i've been i've done work for
goose fish i'm working on billy strings like i've done a lot of these um jam bandy type things i
think that aligns with our a lot of the fans there's a common overlap there so it makes sense
to work with these bands and i've just grateful dead is
one of my top three bands all time and i've always wanted to work with them i've had like probably
like 10 meetings with their record label with people in their orbit like i've talked to so
many people about working with them and it's just always been like closed door like nothing's
happening and finally i just got frustrated with and i posted some art on the internet and I'm like I would really like to work with the Grateful Dead you know it was an opportunity
to be like I'd really like to work with this band and then somebody hit me up an art director who
has the license and he was like I can make it happen through this through this company and we
can do it this way and I'm like let's do that let's just do it that let's do that way let me do one
piece then I'll have that to share with them. Okay,
I did this piece, licensed piece. Maybe we can do a bigger capsule. So to me, that's just a,
you know, it's a door open and I'm like, I'm going to walk through that door. Does that door
seem good enough? Yes, let's do it. You know what I mean? So an entry into that opportunity isn't
maybe what I wanted at the beginning, but it's there.
I'm going to take it.
You know what I'm saying?
You know, you just said something very powerful, and I want to just reiterate it, and maybe
this is my final thoughts.
Because it is about not only walking through the door that's opening for you, but like
fucking taking it, manifestingesting it speaking it without any shame
or remorse like i totally believe in fucking tell us your dreams post that shit tag the person who
can make that happen even if it's the museum the curator fucking do it yeah you know like for
example i'm gonna just tell you a little story here go ahead and that we manifested so hard all right
All right, this was like a few years ago
2021 I would when I had shot twin flames. I really was like
outreaching hard to the Winklevoss twins
To be to be in the project and you know for some reason, you know the project ended too soon and they weren't able to do it
And I was like, oh man, I really wanted them in the project, okay, fast forward to 2021,
all right, I'm doing my big auction at Christie's, uh, you know, I have the twin flames there,
and I'm working on smoke and mirrors, and it's the final, you know, the final portrait of the
project, like the 78th tarot card, and I see you do astrological stuff, and maybe I've done tarot stuff, so you get it.
So the funniest part about that is, like, six months before, I just posted this thing, like, I want to photograph, you know, Tyler and Cameron for this project.
And I just fucking tagged them, posted it, shared it. You know, their friends got around to it.
I met the Nifty Gateway twins who worked with them.
Wait, there's other Nifty Gateway twins?
Yeah, Griffin and Duncan.
They created the company.
So the Winklevoss twins, I think, acquired Nifty Gateway.
I see, I see.
Because they're twins, it was a twin-on-twin thing.
What the fuck? I didn't know that.
The moral of the story is
I was able to connect
with the Winklevoss twins, and they
came to my Twin Flames opening,
and I photographed both the Winklevoss
with the Nifty Gateway
Duncan and Griffin together, two twins,
in front of a wall of twins.
And it was like twin fucking dualities, just two projects closing at the same time.
It was like that ultimate manifestation came together in one photograph.
That's crazy.
Yeah, that's really crazy.
And it is about like fucking show us your true desires and like your truth and what you deserve and what
you're worth and what you want out of life because we are imagining our possibilities
as artists we fucking ask the universe to close mouth doesn't get fed but you just ask for what
you want and there's going to be a lot of no's but there will be that yes that makes it all worth it
yeah that's true i like that story
is incredible it's really that's that's like riding the fractal right to the right to the
node or something seriously bro and it was all because of crypto and it made it happen because
they all fucking i didn't they knew they finally knew me because of crypto yeah yeah that's really
cool so fuck dude that's uh just just like you said, you got the Grateful Dead, I got the twins,
and we just got to keep fucking sharing what we want out of that authentic place
that we know we need to create from.
And I think it's not about wanting something that isn't ours.
It's working towards something we see and envision.
And I think that's the difference.
Yeah, totally.
I mean, there's a great Jerry Garcia interview about this too.
It's just manifestation.
It's very similar to what we're talking about right now.
I just watched it the other day and I'm like thinking,
he's totally fucking right.
Like that's how the Grateful Dead became the Grateful Dead.
They manifested that shit, you know?
Anyway.
Can you send that to me if you can?
Yeah.
I'd love to see it.
Yeah, I'll find it.
Awesome.
Bro, I really enjoyed talking to you.
Like, been a huge fan, like I said, for many years.
So, like, it means a lot to have you here and have a conversation.
Is there anything else you wanted to talk about that we might not have that you wanted to?
No, I'm good.
Before we close the show.
I don't know if anyone has any questions, but I'm pretty good.
I feel like we touched on a lot of important things.
I guess let's end it with one big note.
What do you want to manifest next?
Oh, I want to get Killer Acid animations on the sphere in Las Vegas.
That's my goal
this year, to find that
right people to help me with that.
Because I want to do some...
I have an idea for a custom animation
for that. I'm a huge
Las Vegas fan.
That's my goal.
That shouldn't be too hard.
There's been dozens of NFT artists there.
I know. That shouldn't be too hard, right?
But I haven't asked the right person or I haven't got introduced.
Well, consider it done.
Who on this call can make it happen?
Let's do it.
All right, Praveen.
Who do we got to talk to, bro?
Come on.
I think that'd be sick.
But anyway, yeah.
My goals are modest i'm not
trying to like you know one thing at a time small little small goals you know so i mean that's a
that's a that's a very realistic goal and very probably within the next six months we're gonna
you're gonna hit me up saying look at this shit i hope so i too. All right. And I also hope to see Jake Freed on there and Mumbot and Delo.
Yeah, totally.
All the other amazing artists who are listening.
Let's have a whole show of all these amazing people.
I'm down to do a whole curation on there, man.
Why not just have 20 people cycling on that thing?
If anyone can do it,
it'll happen here first.
Okay, I agree.
Awesome.
All right, man.
Killer Acid, thank you so much, bro.
And thank you, everyone who's listening.
Really appreciate your time and your art so much.
And, you know, looking forward to what's to come.
All right, thank you.
Have a good one.
Have a great day. Thank you.
